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Who's Been Swiping Your Company Equipment?

Catch Them In The Act!

with our Theft-Prevention kits

Thefts Happen Every Day

You work so hard for your business. You do your best to take care of your employees and treat them well. But
guess what? Most of them don’t care and take you for granted. Worse than that they steal from you.

According to a recent University of Cincinnati survey, 64 percent of small businesses have reported experiencing
some level of employee theft at least once in the past. Cash is the most common stolen item (40 percent of all
internal thefts) with amounts that range from $5 to $2 million. Another 18 percent of these thefts involve
physical products, 12 percent focus on raw materials, and 6 percent consist of equipment. The remaining
percentage includes office supplies, time-card manipulation, fuel and other minor items.

In addition to employee theft, burglaries instigated by people outside the company also pose a major threat to
small businesses. According to results of the survey, 65 percent of robberies are successful—a clear indication
that security measures aren’t quite up to par. In instances where a burglar broke into a business after hours,
36 percent gained access to the building through a wooden or glass door, and another 17 percent broke in through
a metal or roller door.

Preventing External Theft

External theft means that someone who doesn’t belong to the company steals your property or equipment. While most
asset theft is the result of internal theft because employees have an easier time accessing and removing
equipment, external theft is still an issue that you should be concerned with.

You have to ensure that you can monitor the entire business at all times. Larger businesses often hire a security
team that watches the store during the night and day. If you don’t have enough money for an internal security
team, then you can typically outsource the work to an external security firm.

Install cameras around the interior and exterior of the store. Any area that houses valuable equipment, such as a
garage, definitely needs cameras. You should also have an alarm system that will protect your store during the
night. The alarm system will alert the police if someone tries to break into your business.

Preventing Internal Theft

Many of the steps for preventing external theft also apply to preventing internal theft. You need to ensure that
you can watch employees at all times to see if they are taking equipment. At the same time, you need to trust
certain employees with access to these security measures to keep the business running smoothly.

Whenever you hire someone or change your policies, you should communicate these rules very clearly to employees.
While most employees know that it’s wrong to steal, they may be violating your security policies without knowing
it. These violations might lead to asset theft in the future. Employees are less likely to steal your assets or
equipment if they think that they’ll get caught.